Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Strange Bullet Behaviour?

My youngest son shot a bear Thursday evening. He was using his Kimber Montana 308 shooting 150gr Hornady Interlocks. He shot it at around 40 yards. The shot was taken on the same basic plane as the bear. The entrance side was the bears right side and the exit the left.

Here is where it gets weird. He had two holes in him. An entrance and an exit. But I recovered the bullet from the off side. The bullet jacket. What was left of the lead core must have gone through?

Probably…

Not too surprising. Interlocks are great bullets that typically expand well and penetrate reasonably well if not pushed too hard, but they certainly aren't bonded. Would be interesting to know what the lead core that punched on through the hide actually weighed.

That would be my guess.

Some years ago, Hornady moved the Interlock ring forward on many bullet models, so that once expansion progressed beyond the ring, the core would separate from the jacket much more easily. Earlier versions had the IL ring further back, so that the bullet would essentially have to expand its entire shank before core/jacket separation would occur.

Typical 150 grain MV, or much higher?

I had the same thing happen years ago on my elk hunt, 30-06 shooting Hornady 180 Interlock hit the elk in the neck and only recovered the jacket, called Hornady and they said the core separated upon hitting the bone. Ever since then I started using Barnes and Nosler partition for elk.

2850. I’m not surprised or shocked by the performance, it just surprised me that that core kept going. I can’t imagine that there was much of it left.

I’ve seen a few lead cores exit when the copper cup didn’t. I’ve seen it with the old AMAX and a few others. It happens. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

I don’t always dig around looking for a bullet or an exit wound depending on circumstances so it may happen more than I have noticed.

I've never worried about what the bullet I retrieved or did not retrieve from a dead animal looked like. I judge by the results of the wound inflicted on the animal. Assuming you use at least a minimum caliber capable of consistently penetrating into the animals vitals and you put the bullet where it belongs, you will kill the animal.

But sometimes, even if you put the bullet where it belongs, the animal doesn't fall dead instantly. Part of being a hunter is being able to track an animal after you hit it. Some animals die very easily. Others don't. Even within the same species. My hunting experience has been primarily whitetails and turkey in Virginia, with a few hunts outside that state. I don't usually use what I consider premium bullets. Corelokts, Interlocks, and spitzer soft points have accounted for probably 90% of the deer I have shot or seen shot. The handful of deer I shot with premium bullets didn't appear any deader than the others. Some deer still run even when hit with well-placed bullets from magnum rifles.

As humans, I think we are conditioned to focus too much on outliers. We expect consistent results even in a system where there are many, many factors at play.

I've seen a whitetail drop right there after getting shot through the liver. Shouldn't be a "down right there" shot placement, but it was. Nothing special about the cartridge used - it was a .30-30 with 170-grain factory bullets on a running deer at about 80 yards.

I've seen someone shoot a whitetail with a .30-06, using a Nosler Partition, at approximately 125 yards. The deer ran, having been shot through its heart and lungs, for approximately 800 yards, leaving a steady blood trail the entire way, before we recovered it. Nothing wrong with the wound channel or bullet placement. The deer just ran. I have no reason to believe that any other bullet from any other hunting rifle would have dropped it right there.

I've recovered a whitetail that ran 300 yards without leaving a drop of blood until the last five to ten yards (tracked him in the snow). Then there was a massive hemorrhage trail and the deer finally died. Deer had been shot through the heart and lungs at under 100 yards with a .30-06 Spitzer soft point.

I shot a whitetail in 2022 at about 100 yards with my .25-06 using 120-grain Ballistic Tips. The deer instantly jumped and ran. I didn't initially find any blood, but I started walking a search pattern in the direction it ran. I found blood after about forty yards and found it crumpled behind a tree another twenty yards further on. Shot placement was good. Heart and lungs were goop. Based on the exit wound, the bullet performed just fine. The deer just ran. The next three deer I shot with that rifle dropped right there or within ten feet of where they were standing when I pulled the trigger.

Many, many more deer I have shot, or seen shot, behaved more "conventionally" and dropped right there the way they "should." But if you hunt for long enough, you will see some outliers. I tend to remember the outliers more than the "dropped right there" ones.

I never, ever worry that if I used a different bullet or different caliber that I wouldn't ever have to sometimes track a deer. I've killed deer with a .30-30, .257 Roberts, .25-06, .270, 7x57R, and .30-06. This coming year, I hope I get the chance to add .243 Winchester, 9.3x62, and .45-70 to the list. Some of my neighbors used to kill deer with .22-250's firing varmint bullets (not legal for deer in Virginia). Another of my neighbors insisted that 7mm Remington Magnum was just barely enough rifle for whitetails, because he had seen a deer run for about seventy yards after getting hit with it. I had to persuade him that "upgrading" to the .300 or .338 Winchester Magnum wasn't going to improve his hunting results.

My rule is to practice using your deer rifle as much as possible, take the best shot you can, and always assume that you hit the deer. Be prepared to track whenever you pull the trigger. When given the opportunity, put another bullet in the deer. There's no trophy for "one shot, one kill." There's nothing wrong with an insurance shot. If you ruin a little bit more meat... well, you still have more meat than you would have if you didn't recover the animal.

After you shoot, even if you see the deer go right down, pay attention to where you are and where the deer is. These days, I'll often pull out my phone after shooting and take a picture of where I am standing and where the deer is/was at. I use my onX Hunt app to mark my exact location and as close to the spot the deer was before I move to start looking for it. Or you can hang up a blaze orange stocking cap or something at each spot so that you can easily find the spot and replay what happened at the moment you pulled the trigger. If you don't do this stuff right away, you might well start looking for blood or hair or other sign in the wrong spot. It's infinitely easier to track a deer if you can determine exactly where to start searching. Whenever possible, get someone else to assist you. Once you shoot at an animal, the recovery of that animal is the primary mission.

Interlocks are crap. I've avoided Hornady since the scamdemic. Threatening folks with a $14000 fine cuz they wouldn't get the jab is unforgivable.
Steve Hornady is a coward and they don't make much that I'll ever buy again. They are my last choice, and I'll never forget that sniveling
a-hole and his actions during Covid.

Pretty unusual for an interlock…..especially at .308 Win. velocities. Well, at least for the interlocks of old, maybe they ain’t what they used to be. memtb

I’ve recovered two in the last two weeks from the same rifle. Both look about the same. Here is the other one.

That ain't interlocking very well....

Seems like it killed well enough or you wouldn't have the bullets to pontificate over. Was the second bullet impact at close range also?

I have never said here that there was a failure. It wasn’t the premise of this thread at all. But yes, impact distance and circumstance was almost identical.

I’ve seen a couple odd things. I’ve told these before, so pardon the repetition.

Once I shot a buck in a steady rain at about 40 yards, dead center right behind the shoulder with a 130gr Interlock at about 2900. The only sign of a hit I found at that spot was a tuft of chest hair, apparently knocked from the far side by the impact of the bullet, which didn’t exit and was found swimming in the pool of blood in his chest. He didn’t bleed externally at all due to the location of the hit, so I had to follow disturbed leaves and the terrain to where he finally fell in a pool of rainwater collected in a gulley.

Another time I hit a buck just as his front feet hit the ground, running nearly directly away from me downhill. The entrance hole was in the V at the rear of his sternum. Didn’t get the guts at all, no did I find the bullet until I cut off his horns and found a little button of lead behind his right ear. That little piece of a .308 Pro Hunter traveled quite a ways.

Shoot a few bears with the 150 gr. Speer Hotcor. Shot many deer with it using both a 308 and a 30-06. Can't ever remember recovering one.

Hornady likes using the fancy names and abbreviations or sells the big BC numbers, but in reality, they are not that great of bullets for hunting purposes compared to what else is available.

My experience dating back to the 70's using myriad different bullets, the Hornady bullet in general does a fine job. I might up the weight to 180 grains on heavier animals. The only brand of bullets that gave me a series of bad results were Barnes X bullets. The early no grooved hollow points.

Yeah, that is not weird. I've seen Sierra gamekings do the same exact thing. One reason I always load heavy for cartridge, when shooting c&c bullets. Was the OP's question rhetorical??